Anne Monius
Centre of Jaina Studies Newsletter: SOAS - University of London
The Jaina Studies Consultation convened for its second session at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on 1 November 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Four scholars presented fascinating papers on the theme of 'Jain Bodily Practices and Representations of the Body' to an audience of roughly thirty scholars in various fields of Religious Studies.
Mari Jyväsjärvi, a PhD Candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University and the panel's principal organizer, presented a paper on Saṅghadāsa's rules for Jain nuns, 'Adapting Ascetic Practices for the Female Body: The Case of Jain Monastic Texts'. Jyväsjärvi argued compellingly that Saṅghadāsa's main innovations in adapting monastic rules for women lie in (1) focussing on brahmacarya over all other Jain virtues, including ahiṃsā; and (2) limitations placed on ascetic practice for women that might endanger them in some way by limiting their ability to respond to unwanted advances by errant men. Jyväsjärvi concluded by suggesting that Saṅghadāsa might also view karma as working differently according to bodily gender.
Lisa Owen, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas, explored imagery of Jaina monks and nuns at Ellora in a presentation entitled, 'Monastic Bodies: The Roles of Portraiture in Ellora's Jain Caves'. Focussing in particular on an Ellora image of Jaina monks and female āryakās gathered around an image of the Jina, Owen suggested that perhaps the site was associated not with the more well-known Digambara communities of contemporary Karnataka, but with the relatively under-studied Yāpanīyas.
Anne Vallely, Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, next explored the differences between philosophical or ideological treatments of the body in Jaina texts and the 'lived' body of everyday human practice and experience. Through a paper entitled, 'The Discursive and Phenomenological Body within Jainism', Vallely focussed on the story of a young Śvetāmbar Jain woman suffering physical and emotional distress, eventually diagnosed as the result of her gotra's neglect of its tutelary deity. Once worship of the goddess was restored, so were the girl's (and her wider family's) fortunes, suggesting, in Vallely's interpretation, that Jaina cosmology allows for both a vision of the body as an impediment to liberation and as the seat of valid, emotion-laden, experiential forms of knowing.
The final paper was presented by M. Whitney Kelting, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northeastern University. Entitled, 'Jinamātās: Pregnant with the Embodiments of Jainism', Kelting's presentation explored the increasing Jaina focus on visual images of the pregnant body of Triśalāmātā, mother of the Jina Mahāvīr, and the role of Triśalāmātā's fourteen dreams in the celebration of Mahāvīr Janam Divas, arguing that ultimately the detailed focus on the bodily aspects of pregnancy serve to accentuate or emphasize the humanness of the Jina.
The paper presentations were followed by a wideranging discussion. The Jaina Studies Consultation will hold another panel at next year's Annual Meeting of the AAR, currently scheduled for 19-22 November 2011 in San Francisco.
Anne E. Monius is Professor of South Asian Religions at Harvard Divinity School. Specializing in the religious traditions of India, her research centres on literature as a means for reconstructing South Asian religious history.